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Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

Among the many problems with movie lists is the lack of a common starting point. No one can watch the hundreds of domestic and international titles released every year. We don’t even try.

I’m suspicious of writers who claim to screen 250+ films a year. Sure, stuff’s playing in the background while you’re cooking, checking email, God forbid writing reviews, but at some point all those films bleed together into an endless montage of repetitive imagery and plot points. Ultimately everything looks and feels the same. Nothing matters.

With access to screenings, festivals, links, etc., critics start from an apparent position of privilege. In reality, that means they see what studios and their publicists want them to see. Or will let them see. There...

Mohammad Rasoulof, president of the New Currents jury at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, said that Germany’s selection of his latest work, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, as this year’s Oscars submission should offer hope to other filmmakers working under strict censorship conditions.

Rasoulof is currently living in exile in Germany after fleeing Iran on the eve of this year’s Cannes film festival – where The Seed Of The Sacred Fig screened in competition and won a Special Award – after Iranian authorities sentenced him to eights years imprisonment for making the film without a permit.

Germany subsequently selected the film as its submission for the Best International Feature category of the Oscars. There was zero chance that Iran’s government-influenced Oscars selection committee would have chosen the film.

“The investors of the film were German, and the producer was from Germany, so although the film is Iranian,...

Neo Sora’s narrative debut “Happyend,” a dystopian portrait of rebellious youth fighting for a better future that first bowed in Venice’s Horizons section, has sold to multiple territories for Magnify, the international sales arm of Magnolia Pictures.

In addition to Metrograph Pictures, which grabbed North American rights last month and will be releasing theatrically in 2025, Magnify has secured deals in France (Eurozoom), South Korea (Jinjin), Taiwan (Hooray), Hong Kong (Edko), China (Wiseup), Indonesia (Falcon), Turkey (Filmarti), Ex-Yugoslavia (Five Star), Cee (HBO), with many other territories under negotiation. Giraffe Pictures will be releasing in Singapore and Bitters End is releasing theatrically in Japan on Oct. 4.

Following Venice, the film had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (Centerpiece) and its Asian premiere in the Pingyao International Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award. The film recently screened at the New York Film Festival and next...

Forka Film, the renamed company of leading Indonesian indie producer Ifa Isfansyah, is unwrapping a slate with films by newcomer Eden Junjung and veterans Kamila Andini and Riri Riza.

Previously known as Fourcolours Films, the company has recently completed principal photography on Junjung’s “Mad of Madness” (aka “Angkara Murka”), a psychological thriller that explores the struggles of a young mother working in a sand mine after her husband’s mysterious disappearance. Raihaanun stars in the lead role as Ambar, bringing raw emotion to a narrative of survival and sacrifice.

Known for his critically acclaimed short films, Junjung recently pitched the film project at the Naff It Project Market, part of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. It is set for completion in early 2025.

Andini, who was in Busan last year as director of the Netflix-backed mini-series “The Cigarette Girl,” is preparing “Four Seasons in Java,” a moving exploration...

China’s Rediance has acquired international sales rights to Chinese actor Dong Zijian’s directorial feature debut My Friend An Delie, which is set to premiere in the main competition at the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival.

Dong began his career as an actor aged 17 and has since been active in both film and TV. He has starred in acclaimed films such as Jia Zhangke’s 2015 Cannes competitor Mountains May Depart and Liu Jie’s De Lan, which won the Golden Goblet Award for best film at Shanghai.

Dong also co-wrote the new film, inspired by the homonymous novel by famed writer Shuang Xuetao,...

The Toronto Film Festival is awash with international titles. Led by Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed Of The Sacred Fig” and Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow,” the festival’s huge Centrepiece spread alone has 38 titles from outside Canada and the U.S. The Discovery section has another 18.

Not all Toronto international titles are world premieres, however. Here are 16 which are sparking good word of mouth. Variety isn’t claiming they are the best. The buzz might not be justified. But they are certainly worth tracking.

“Sunshine,” (Antoinette Jadaone, Philippines)

Anima, the Filipino studio behind Erik Matti’s Venice winner “On The Job 2: The Missing 8” and Sundance winner “Leonor Will Never” Die, joined Project 8 Projects to co-produce Antoinette Jadaone’s teenage pregnancy drama “Sunshine.” It turns on a young gymnast who discovers she is pregnant on the week of the national team tryouts. On her way to a seller of illegal abortion drugs,...

Specialty sales and finance firm Rediance has picked up international sales rights to “Bound in Heaven,” the directorial debut feature of experienced Chinese screenwriter Huo Xin.

The tragic love story will have its world premiere this week in the Centerpiece section of the Toronto International Film Festival. It will subsequently travel to San Sebastian for its European debut.

Adapted from the novel of the same title by Li Xiuwen, the drama centers around a successful young woman who lives in the city with her abusive fiance and a lonely terminally ill man running a noodle shop in Wuhan. A chance encounter sparks an immediate attraction and their connection provides light and lightness in their emotional and dark journeys.

The film stars Ni Ni, who appeared in Zhang Yimou’s “The Flowers of War” and 2022 smash hit “Lost in the Stars.” Zhou You, who also appeared in Jia Zhangke’s Cannes...

The work of British filmmaker Christopher Nolan, past and recent, merits even greater appreciation when compared to Chinese director Chen Sicheng’s ambitious but saccharine and mostly dull “Decoded,” an adaptation of the 2002 novel of the same name by Mai Jia. This cradle-to-grave portrait of fictional character Rong Jinzhen (Liu Haoran), a prodigious orphan turned valuable government asset in the 1940s, chronicles how his unique skillset ultimately helped clear the path for China to establish its own nuclear weapons program.

While the magnitude of his task and its global repercussions might immediately induce comparisons to Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” if one takes “Decoded” as “China’s answer” to the recent best picture Oscar winner, the moniker must come with the caveat that this means it’s a toothless film as it relates to moral ambiguity. It’s not a dissident work of art made to question the pursuit of such armament,...

Magnify has acquired global and U.S. sales rights to Neo Sora’s near-futuristic film “Happyend” ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The movie will play in the Horizons section and is being handled by Magnify outside of Japan and Singapore.

Set in a near-future Tokyo, “Happyend” revolves around two rabble-rousing best friends who are about to graduate high school while threats of a catastrophic earthquake looms. One night, they pull a prank on their principal, which leads to a surveillance system being installed in their school. Stuck between the oppressive security system and a darkening national political situation, the two respond in contrasting ways.

The movie marks Neo Sora’s fictionh feature debut. His previous credits include “Ryuichi Sakamoto/Opus” which premiered at Venice and was picked by Janus for North America, and short films, such as “The Chicken” which premiered in Locarno, among others.

Clockwise from left: Challengers, Past Lives, PassagesPhoto: MGM Studios, A24, Screenshot: Mubi/YouTube

Summers of yore—hot girl summer, Barbenheimer summer, even white boy summer—have all been about de-centering detractors and stepping into one’s own individual power. That’s out for 2024. This summer, we’re not sidelining men; we’re finding two.

China-based international sales agent Rediance has acquired world sales rights to “The Falling Sky,” a feature documentary which will premiere next month at Cannes in the Directors Fortnight section. Directed by Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, the film makes the Amazonian Yanomami people its stars.

Based on the book of the same title by shaman and Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa and French anthropologist Bruce Albert, “The Falling Sky” portrays the indigenous community of Watorikɨ as it engages in a funeral rite known as the reahu, which is a collective effort to hold up the sky and prevent it from falling.

The film stands as a trenchant shamanic critique of the destruction of the Yanomami’s way of life caused by the intrusions of the napë, the white prospectors and the so-called civilized world into the Yanomami territory.

“The spellbinding images, meticulous sound design, and powerful words of Davi...

If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy four by Sara Driver, and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.

Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...

Strand Releasing has acquired the North American rights to Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well,” which world premiered at this year’s Berlinale and won the Teddy Prize for best film. The movie played last week as the opening film at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

“All Shall Be Well” chronicles the lives of two women, Angie and Pat, a couple living in Hong Kong who have been together for over four decades. After Pat’s unexpected death, Angie finds herself at the mercy of her extended family as she struggles to retain both her dignity and the home that they shared for over 30 years.

A universal tale, the movie also explores the limitations of Hong Kong’s laws, which don’t allow same-sex marriage. Patra Au Ga Man and Maggie Li Lin Lin star in the lead roles of Angie and Pat, respectively.

The deal was done...

Dubai-based sales agency Cercamon has acquired worldwide rights for Indonesian film “Crocodile Tears,” it was revealed at Hong Kong rights market FilMart.

The film is a co-production between Indonesia’s Talamedia (producer Mandy Marahimin), Singapore’s Giraffe Pictures (producers Anthony Chen and Teoh Yi Peng), France’s Acrobates Films (producer Claire Lajoumard) and Poetik Film (producer Christophe Lafont) and Germany’s 2Pilots Filmproduction (producers Harry Flöter and Jörg Siepmann).

The deal was negotiated by Sebastien Chesneau at Cercamon, Chen at Giraffe Pictures and Marahimin at Talamedia.

The film, Tumpal Tampubolon’s feature debut, follows Johan, who lives alone with his mother on a crocodile farm in West Java. Mother and son live in voluntary exile with only a white crocodile as their confidant. Their life of isolation is disrupted when Johan falls for a girl in town, Arumi, setting off a chain of events that threatens the delicate balance of their lives.

Oscar winner Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s formalist arthouse drama Evil Does Not Exist won the best film prize Sunday night at the Asia Film Awards in Hong Kong.

The Japanese film industry had a big night overall at the 17th edition of the awards ceremony, which was hosted this year in Hong Kong’s gleaming new Xiqu Centre, part of the city’s $2.7 billion West Kowloon Cultural District development. Japanese festival favorite Hirokazu Kore-eda won best director for his mystery drama Monster, while the great Koji Yakusho took best actor for Wim Wender’s moving minimalist drama Perfect Days. Hamaguchi’s chief collaborator on Evil Does Not Exist, Eiko Ishibashi, won best music and the Kaiju critical and commercial sensation Godzilla Minus One claimed both best visual effects and best sound.

In many ways, it was Zhang Yimou’s night, however. The venerated Chinese director took the stage twice, once to...

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” was Sunday evening named as the best picture at the Asian Film Awards.

The 17th edition of the prizes was held at the Xiqu Centre, part of the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong.

While “Evil Does Not Exist” and Korean blockbuster “12.12: The Day” had dominated the nominations with six each, including those in the best film category, the prizes on Sunday were much more evenly distributed. No title collected more than two prizes.

Outside, crowds failed to be muted by the March drizzle, though VIP guests were given escorts with purple umbrellas.

Filmmaker and industry attendance was also robust. Those spotted on the red carpet and pre-event cocktails included: Lee Yong Kwan (former chair of the Busan film festival), Tom Yoda, Udine festival heads Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, Anthony Chen, Stanley Kwan, Rina Damayanti, Hong Kong distributor Winnie Tsang,...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best International Feature Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’

Weekly Commentary: The United Kingdom is poised to win its first Academy Award with Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and what a deserved win it will be.

But while I have the floor: it’s time for the...

There is a moment in Drift, the character study from filmmaker Anthony Chen, that you know is inevitable. (It’s now playing in New York, opens in L.A. on Feb. 16, and goes wide on Feb. 23.) You spend so much of this carefully constructed film’s running time bracing for it, aware that this tale of a woman named Jacqueline — quietly yet powerfully played by Cynthia Erivo — is building to a confessional crescendo. A Liberian citizen who’s been living in London for years, she now finds herself in Greece,...

It’s a weekend of well-reviewed indie openings with Bleecker Street’s Out Of Darkness, The Monk And The Gun (from the directors of Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom) and limited openings for The Taste Of Things, Perfect Days (Best International Feature nominated), Anthony Chen’s Drift, Bas Devos’ Here and Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore, which premiered in Venice in 2021 and is finally getting a U.S. release.

Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, Japan’s official Oscar submission that nabbed a nom, opened at six locations in New York and LA Wednesday, adding additional cities next week. The film written by Wenders and Takuma Takasaki stars Hirayama, a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo who seems utterly content with his simple life until a series of unexpected encounters reveal more of his unearthed past. See Deadline review.

Neon had a qualifying run in November.

Neon is opening Origin on 130 screens and plans to expand the Ava DuVernay film, which premiered in Venice and had a excellent qualifying run in December.

Neon took global rights on Origin before its Venice premiere where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and DuVernay became the first Black American woman to have a selection there. Deadline reported the film tested well with audiences, landing a 91 total positive in the top two boxes, with an 81 definite recommend, the highest for both Neon and DuVernay. With the theatrical release, the distributor is looking to pull in the arthouse and “smarthouse” (mainstream crossover) audiences and Black audiences with targeted bookings including theaters in regional markets like Atlanta, Chicago and Baltimore. It’s a hard film to comp but it is everywhere that recent films The Color Purple and American Fiction have done well.

Origin is based on New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning...

The clue to unlocking the delicate dynamics of Singaporean writer-director Anthony Chen’s The Breaking Ice is in its very title. Certainly, the film is too eager to underline how its characters’ sexual and emotional entanglements are symbolic of water in its various forms. But, in the end, Chen’s portrayal of three repressed twentysomethings whose lives converge in the sleepy Chinese northern border town of Yanji is unpredictable for being less focused on the freedom of catharsis than on the messiness of self-actualization.

The Breaking Ice is fixated on intense in-between states that work to separate people from each other and from themselves, as if to say self-acceptance and love aren’t destinations so much as journeys, at once formidable and worthwhile. But the film is also about how some of the barriers that hold us back are unnatural, political, and classed. As Yanji is a working-class city near...

A total of 35 films from 24 countries and regions have been shortlisted to compete for 16 awards at this year's Asian Film Awards.

Renowned Japanese director Kurosawa Kiyoshi will serve as the Jury President for this year's Awards. As the first Japanese director to hold this position, Kurosawa Kiyoshi is deeply honored. He will lead the Jury and over 200 Voting Members in selecting the winners for this year's Asian Film Awards.

The winners of other Afa awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, Excellence in Asian Cinema Award, Afa Next Generation Award, and Rising Star Award, will be announced later.

The 17th Asian Film Awards Nomination List

Best Film

12.12: The Day (South Korea)

Evil Does Not Exist (Japan)

Paradise

Perfect Days (Japan)

Snow Leopard (Mainland China)

Best Director

Kim Sung-soo | 12.12: The Day (South Korea)

Gu Xiaogang | Dwelling by the West Lake (Mainland China)

Hamaguchi Ryusuke | Evil Does Not Exist (Japan)

Kore-eda Hirokazu...

Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest feature, Evil Does Not Exist, and the period action pic 12.12: The Day, from Korea, lead the nominations at this year’s Asian Film Awards.

Both films received six nominations, including Best Film and Best Director. Directed by Kim Sung-soo, whose credits include Asura: The City Of Madness and The Flu, 12.12: The Day is set against the backdrop of the real-life military coup of 1979, which resulted in an eight-year military junta in South Korea. The cast includes Hwang Jung-min (The Wailing), Jung Woo-sung (Asura: The City Of Madness), and Lee Sung-min (The Spy Gone North). Released on November 22, the film sailed past the 12 million admissions mark at the Korean box office over the Christmas holiday period, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023 in the market.

Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist — which debuted out of Venice — follows Takumi and his daughter Hana, who live...

Every year since its creation in 1956, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invites the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The category was previously called the Best Foreign Language Film, but this was changed in April 2019 to Best International Feature Film, after the Academy deemed the word “Foreign” to be outdated.

The award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. For the 96th Academy Awards, the submitted motion pictures must be first released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline for submissions to the Academy was October 2, 2023, and 92 countries submitted a film. The 15-film shortlist will be announced on December 21, 2023, followed by the official nominations on January 23, 2024.

Here are this edition's Asian Submissions for Best International Feature Film.

One of the most popular events at the 34th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) was a panorama event where six of the country’s leading indie film lights shared a panel to discuss opportunities and challenges.

Opportunities are plentiful, with the festival world embracing Singaporean films and filmmakers warmly. Hong Kong-based Anthony Chen has had a stellar year with his directorial efforts “Drift” and “The Breaking Ice” which premiered at Sundance and Cannes, respectively. The latter was selected as Singapore’s entry to the 2024 Oscars.

Among Chen’s fellow panelists, Jow Zhi Wei’s “Tomorrow is a Long Time” premiered at the Berlinale this year; Nicole Midori Woodford’s “Last Shadow at First Light” at San Sebastian; and Nelson Yeo’s “Dreaming & Dying” won two major awards at Locarno.

Also on the panel were Kelvin Tong and Chai Yee Wei whose “A Year of No Significance” and “Wonderland,” respectively,...

Shortlist of 15 films to be announced December 21, nominations out on January 23, 2024.

The Academy has announced eligible features in the categories of international feature film, animation, and documentary for the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024.

The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 21, and the nominations announcement is January 23, 2024.

International

Eighty-eight countries or regions have submitted films eligible for consideration in the international feature film category. An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes long) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track. Namibia is a first-time entrant.

Academy members...

The second of the two movies Anthony Chen directed in 2023, “The Breaking Ice” has very little to do with the aesthetics of the ‘French' “Drift”, although elements of European cinema can also be found here. Also of note is the presence of Zhou Dongyu, probably the biggest star ever to appear in the director's filmography, while the film is the Singaporean entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

“The Breaking Ice“ is screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival

The story takes place in the frozen Yanji, a small Chinese town close to the North Korean border, where a large Korean community is also inhabiting. Nana, alienated from her family and scarred mentally and physically from an accident in the past, is currently working as a bus-tour guide, seemingly cheerful around her customers. One of the regular stops of her tour is at a local restaurant run by Xiao's family,...

Anthony Chen had a very busy year in 2023, coming up with two films, “The Breaking Ice” and “Drift”, with the second one, which we will deal with in this article, being a rather unique experience for him, considering it was shot in Greece, France and Liberia and is his English-language debut.

“Drift“ is screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival

With memories still fresh from a war that forced her to leave Liberia, Jacqueline is trying to survive in a Greek Island, with her circumstances, though, being similar to a stray dog, as a rather eloquent shot in the beginning of the movie highlights. She eats what she can find, occasionally just bags of sugar, is sleeping on the beach and is washing what she can of her clothes in the sea, while roaming around without any particular goal or hope. Flashbacks in her past portray a totally different life, of...

Oscar voters in the Best International Feature Film category have received their group assignments for this year’s initial round of voting, with 89 films included on the seven lists that the Academy has sent to members.

The lists, which were obtained by TheWrap, include presumed favorites “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom), “The Taste of Things” (France), “The Promised Land” (Denmark) and “Perfect Days” (Japan), along with a number of documentaries, among them Estonia’s “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” Brazil’s “Pictures of Ghosts” and Ukraine’s “20 Days in Mariupol.”

The 89 films are four short of the record of 93 qualifying films in the category. The list of group assignments does not make up the Academy’s official list of eligible films; it’s possible that assigned films might still fail to qualify before first-round voting begins on Dec. 18. For the most part, though, films that are included in the group...

The creative team from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will soon be swinging into Colorado to accept an inaugural award at the Denver Film Festival.

The fest today announced a more complete lineup of events, screenings, honorees, special guests, podcasts and more for this year’s installment, scheduled for Nov. 3-12. Plucked to receive the inaugural Denver Film Festival 5280 Award will be the Spider-Verse team. The prize is designed to honor “exceptional cinematic work and collaboration to achieve new heights,” per officials. It will be presented to writers and producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, executive producer Bob Persichetti, producer Christina Steinberg and senior animation supervisor Humberto Rosa following a screening of the film on Nov. 7 at the AMC 9 + Co 10.

Anthony Chen, whose credits include Ilo Ilo, Wet Season and Ah ma, has been tapped to receive the Denver Film Festival Excellence in Directing Award following the screening of one of his new films,...

Accomplishing the rare feature of premiering two features this year, Anthony Chen’s Cynthia Erivo-led and -produced refugee drama Drift premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, then a few months later he debuted The Breaking Ice at Cannes Film Festival. The former was picked up by Utopia and now ahead of a February 9 release, the first trailer and poster have arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Jacqueline (Two-Time Academy Award nominee Cynthia Erivo), a young refugee, lands alone and penniless on a Greek island, where she tries first to survive and then to cope with her past. While gathering her strength, she begins a friendship with a rootless tour-guide (Alia Shawkat) and together they find the resilience to forge ahead.”

Michael Frank said in his Sundance review, “Coming from a script by Susanne Farrell and Alexander Maksik, Drift rarely individualizes its main character, quietly watching her as she struggles to survive.

Margreth Olin’s “Songs of Earth,” Norway’s Oscar entry for the international feature film race, has been bought by Strand Releasing for North American distribution.

The documentary feature, which is executive produced by Wim Wenders and Liv Ullman, played at Toronto where it sold to key territories, and had its U.S. premiere at the Hamptons Film Festival. Strand Releasing is planning to debut the film early next year.

“We’re thrilled to represent this poetic and cinematic film and feel it will resonate with audiences in a meaningful way to address the global crisis,” said Jon Gerrans, Strand Releasing’s co-president.

“Songs of Earth” portrays the bond between the endangered Norwegian nature and Olin’s 85-year old father. The documentary shows how nature is threatened by climate change, while also depicting the passage of generations.

The film had its world premiere at the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival and...

Leaff 2023 brings a diverse programme from East and Southeast Asia, including international and UK premieres. This year, our programme will be showcased through these strands: Retrospective: Director Chung Ji-Young, Leaff’s Official Selection, Competition, Stories of Women, Halloween Horror Special, Cherish the World, Lgbtqia+ and Classics Restored. The festival will open and close at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. Other screenings and Q&As will take place at Odeon Luxe West End and the Cinema at Selfridges.

For more information about tickets, please visit: https://www.leaff.org.uk/2023tickets

Here is the full programme:

Opening Gala

The Boys + Q&a with the Director | Dir. Chung Ji-Young | Korea | 2023 | 124 mins

Closing Gala

Concrete Utopia + Q&a with Director, Actor Park Bo-young | Dir. Um Tae-hwa | Korea | 2023 | 130 mins

Leaff Official Selection

The Breaking Ice | Dir. Anthony Chen | Singapore | 2022 | 97 mins

Dan Dan | Dir. Song Chuan | China | 2022 | 103 mins

Hidden Blade | Dir. Cheng Er | Hong Kong | 2022 | 128 mins

In Broad Daylight | Dir.

Anthony Chen (“The Breaking Ice”) is attached to direct and Shinho Lee to write “Sunset Park” for Barunson C&c, a film and TV production subsidiary of Barunson E&a, the Korean company that produced Oscar-winning hit “Parasite.”

“Sunset Park” recounts a surprising journey in the U.S. made by a Korean father with his son’s room mate, after the man receives tragic news about his son. The project is being developed by Jane Hyojin Kwon (Lucky Jane Title) and Woo-sik Seo (Barunson C&c), with Chen’s production outlet Giraffe Pictures boarding as producing partner. New York-based Lee is the writer of Na Hong-jin’s breakout Korean actioner “The Chaser” as well as Wayne Wang’s drama film “While The Women Are Sleeping.”

The cross-cultural story is only one of several high-profile global projects that the company is launching in and around the Busan International Film Festival and on...

Japan heads the nominations, followed by China.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist heads the nominations for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, with nods in four categories including best film, best director, best screenplay and best cinematography.

The Japanese feature premiered at Venice where it picked up both the jury and Fipresci prize, and centres on a father and daughter in a rural village, whose peaceful lives are disrupted by proposals to build a camping site in their area.

Hamaguchi’s latest film, following Oscar-winner Drive My Car, was just ahead of China’s Snow Leopard by the late Tibetan director Pema Tseden,...

Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest feature, Evil Does Not Exist, leads this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) with four nods, including the gong for Best Film.

Hamaguchi’s nominations haul includes Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography for Yoshio Kitagawa. The film is Hamaguchi’s first film since his Oscar-winning Drive My Car and debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The pic follows Takumi and his daughter Hana, who live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. Like generations before them, they live a modest life according to the cycles and order of nature. A plan to construct a glamping site near Takumi’s house, offering city residents a comfortable “escape” to nature, threatens to endanger the ecological balance of the area and the local people’s way of life.

Also nominated in the Best Film category are Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days, Snow Leopard by Pema Tseden,...

Singapore has picked Ilker Anthony Chen’s coming-of-age Chinese drama The Breaking Ice as its submission to the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category. The film made its world premiere in May in Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, with The Hollywood Reporter‘s critics later selecting it as one of the 20 best films screened at the prestigious French festival this year.

Made with a mostly Chinese cast and crew, The Breaking Ice tells the story of an unlikely, fleeting friendship formed between three restless young people in China’s far northeastern border city of Yanji. It is headlined by a star-studded ensemble of young Chinese talent, including Zhou Dongyu (Oscar-nominated Better Days), Liu Haoran (Detective Chinatown franchise) and Qu Chuxiao (The Wandering Earth). Described as a Generation Z drama, the film’s story follows the blossoming friendship of its three main characters as they discover warmth...

Depending on who you ask, the term “literary cinema” can have good or bad connotations. At worst it implies an over-reliance on handheld camera work, dull naturalism, and clumsy metaphors. While by no means a dreadful film, Anthony Chen’s The Breaking Ice certainly has those hang-ups in spades. In fact, I felt ready to deem it “Wistful Staring Set to Tinkly Music: The Movie.” Unfortunately, this all feels a bit like something that does more to give the appearance of a quiet, introspective character-driven drama without doing the hard work of giving its central three characters anything actually that interesting in terms of an arc or even melodramatic tension.

Our trinity, in the standstill many face during their 20s, are residents of the Chinese city of Yanji. Nana (Zhou Dongyo) puts on a happy face at her day job as a tourist guide for the city’s winter attractions,...

On the final weekend of a bustling 18-day event, the in-person edition of this year’s Melbourne Film Festival has drawn to a close with an awards ceremony that saw a whopping $300,000 Aud in prize money handed out across six categories. The biggest individual award of $140,000 Aud was presented to the winner of the fest’s international Bright Horizons competition: “Banel & Adama,” an arresting debut feature by Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy.

It’s a notable coup for a small-scale rural love story that turned heads — but won no prizes — when it premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is still seeking distribution in the U.S. and other major territories. Reviewing the film out of Cannes, Variety critic Jessica Kiang commended the “subtly seductive power” of a “striking debut [that] revolves with graceful poetry around the inner experiences of a curious, unknowable woman.”

Its win came...

Auteurs Agnieszka Holland, Wim Wenders, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Aki Kaurismaki are among the filmmakers featured in the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Centrepiece program.

The strand, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema, which honors and celebrates global cinematic achievements, features 47 titles from filmmakers representing 45 countries.

TIFF has also revealed the additional lineup of galas, special presentations and documentaries, which feature star wattage from around the world including Tommy Lee Jones and Anil Kapoor.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece program, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF chief programming officer. “The rebranding of the TIFF program, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.

Ahead of Toronto International Film Festival kicking off in less than a month, the festival announced more additions, including Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, Close Your Eyes by Víctor Erice, Fallen Leaves by Aki Kaurismäki, Green Border by Agnieszka Holland, Perfect Days by Wim Wenders, About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and more.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece programme, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer. “The rebranding of the TIFF programme, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the Festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

See the lineup below.

Centrepiece Programme 2023

100 Yards Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng | China

International Premiere

About...

The programme comprises 47 films from 45 countries.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled the line-up for its Centrepiece programme, with 47 titles screening from filmmakers representing 45 countries.

Included in the programme (previously known as Contemporary World Cinema) are Victor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, getting its North American premiere; Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, receiving its Canadian premiere; and Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, a North American premiere.

Scroll down for the full list of Centrepiece titles

TIFF also announced additional titles for its Galas, Special Presentations and Documentaries programmes, among them the world premiere of Brian Helgeland’s Finestkind.

The Toronto International Film Festival has added 59 more films to the lineup of its 2023 festival, including 47 international films in the Centrepiece program, which in previous years was known as Contemporary World Cinema. New films were also added to the Galas, Special Presentations and Documentary sections.

World premieres among the new selections include “Finestkind,” a crime thriller from Brian Helgeland (screenwriter of “L.A. Confidential”) starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Foster; The Movie Teller,” a film set in Chile starring Berenice Bejo from “An Education” director Lone Scherfig; and Jessica Yu’s “Quiz Lady,” with Sandra Oh and Awkwafina.

The Centrepiece selections include a number of films from May’s Cannes Film Festival, among them Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses,” Aki Kaurismaki’s “Fallen Leaves,” Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s “Banel & Adama,” Amjad Al Rasheed’s “Inshallah a Boy,” Joanna Arnow’s “The Feeling That the...

The Toronto International Film Festival continues to expand its 2023 lineup with 47 films from 45 countries in the Centerpiece program, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema. The highlights include Cannes Film Festival winners “Fallen Leaves” from Aki Kaurismäki and “Perfect Days” from Wim Wenders as well as Agnieszka Holland’s Venice-bound “Green Border.” See the full lineup below.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece program, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer, in an official statement. “The rebranding of the TIFF program, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, for acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

Centerpiece Program 2023

About Dry Grasses (Kuru Otlar Üstüne) Nuri Bilge Ceylan...

Strand Releasing has snatched up North American distribution rights to Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen’s recent Cannes favorite The Breaking Ice. The film made its world premiere in May in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, with The Hollywood Reporter‘s critics later selecting it as one of the 20 best films screened at the festival this year.

The Breaking Ice tells the story of an unlikely, fleeting friendship formed between three restless young people in China’s far northeastern border city of Yanji. It is headlined by a star-studded ensemble of young Chinese talent, including Zhou Dongyu (Oscar-nominated Better Days), Liu Haoran (the Detective Chinatown franchise) and Qu Chuxiao (The Wandering Earth).

Chen previously won Cannes’ Caméra d’Or award with his debut feature Ilo Ilo (2013), which was later submitted by Singapore as its entry to the Oscars’ best international film race. His second feature Wet Season premiered in Toronto and his English-language debut,...

This year's edition of Cannes film festival offered a number of high quality titles from Asia, both in competiton(s) and side bar programmes. One of the most awaited films was Takeshi Kitano's “Kubi” screened in Premiere section, in director's presence. Back to the samurai genre, 20 years after the critically acclaimed “Zatoichi” and with a period piece based on his own historic novel published in 2019, Kitano struggled to bring his characters close to the audience, but stayed faithful to the title by making many heads roll. “Kubi” (which was also the title of his novel) means “neck”, a beloved target of the samurai sword. This is allegedly the last film by “Beat”, if we take his statement before the festival kicked off seriously.

A year after his drama “Broker” brought Palme D'Or for Best Actor to Song Kang-ho, and five after he was awarded Palme D'Or for “Shoplifters”, Hirokazu Koreeda...

Over the course of his first three features — “Ilo Ilo,” “Wet Season” and this year’s “Drift” — Singaporean director Anthony Chen has developed a signature style. It is a graceful, lucid classicism, a mode that in its straightforward sincerity is not fashionable in our abrasive moment, but can yield significant satisfactions. That is certainly true of his second film of 2023, “The Breaking Ice,” which describes, in a trio of perfectly judged performances, the burgeoning, momentous and yet fleeting connection between three differently lonely people — a love triangle with rounded, snowdrift corners.

Yu Jing-Pin’s lovely photography contrasts wintry wides and warm close-ups, as writer-director Chen carves out three characters against the frozen landscapes of Yanji, a small Chinese town in shouting distance of the North Korean border. This is the current home of Nana an unfulfilled bus-tour guide who switches on her ready smile for her passengers — and switches it...

Text written on June 6, 2023 by Jean-Marc Thérouanne

Asia in the juries :

Franco-Afghan writer and director Atiq Rahimi was the only Asian member of the prestigious jury at the 76th Cannes Film Festival

Fench-Cambodian director Davy Chou was the only Asia-related member of the Un Certain Regard jury

Davy Chou

Shlomi Elkabetz was the only member of the short film jury and the Cinef with a connection to geographical Asia.

Asia in the selections:

Asia, from the Near to the Far East, was present with 31 features and 13 shorts in all the official and parallel sections of the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

In compétition :

– China: Youth (Spring) by Wang Bing

– Japan: Monster by Kore-eda Hirokazu,

Kim Dong-ho, Hirokazu Koreeda

– Turkey: About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan,

and The Pot-au-feu by French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung and Wim Wenders' Perfect Days, set in Japan.

Out of compétition :

– Korea: Cobweb by Kim Jee-won,...

This year’s Cannes Film Festival was hardly a letdown from a U.S. distribution standpoint. From Netflix’s surprise acquisition of Todd Haynes’ “May December” to Neon nabbing the Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” and Mubi picking up Aki Kaurismaki’s “Fallen Leaves,” there was no shortage of indications that several Cannes highlights will make their way to American audiences in the months ahead.

Nevertheless, this remains a tricky time for anyone in the acquisitions business, and some of the gems from this year’s lineup still need homes. Here are a few key ones for buyers to consider.

Ryan Lattanzio contributed to this story.

“The Breaking Ice” “The Breaking Ice”

A sweet and shimmeringly beautiful sad hot people film about how life can flow and then freeze and then thaw into something entirely new if you let it, Anthony Chen’s “The Breaking Ice” finds...

This year’s Cannes has come to an end, but its ripple effects will be felt across the rest of the year, as the the 2023 edition of the ultra-prestigious festival played host to a deep and extraordinary array of premieres from some of the world’s greatest filmmakers, several of whom were debuting new work for the first time in the better part of a decade (or longer).

In most cases, the wait proved worth it. “The Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer stunned the Croisette with his much-anticipated follow-up to 2013’s “Under the Skin,” while the likes of Aki Kaurismäki, Catherine Breillat, Tran Anh Hung, and Martin Scorsese — whose epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” only felt like it was forever in the making — all returned with major triumphs that reminded us of their singular brilliance. Even Cannes mainstays like Hirokazu Kore-eda, Wes Anderson, and Palme d’Or-winner Justine Triet...